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<h1>QL Time Calc Trainer Help</h1>

<h2>Background</h2>

<p>
The QL Time Calc Trainer is an utterly useless application to train your ability
to do mental arithmetic, more precisely to do some calculations specific to
Quake Live (or Quake 3 Arena) in your head.
</p>
<p>
When playing Quake Live, it's advantageous to know when certain items (Mega
Health, Armor, Quad Damage) will respawn. The respawn times are fixed (for most
maps) - Mega Health/Health: 35 seconds, Red/Yellow Armor: 25 seconds, Quad
Damage: 2 minutes. If you know the time an item taken is taken, you can
calculate when it will respawn based on the above respawn times.
</p>
<p>
However, it is not always easy to do the math in your head while jumping around,
shooting, avoiding shots etc. etc. Also, calculations based on 60 seconds
(instead on 10, 100, 1000, ...) is something you may no be used to.
</p>

<h2>Usage</h2>

<p>
The QL Time Calc Trainer is very simply. You get the time from which to start
(when the item is taken) and the item (Mega Health, Red Armor, Quad, ...). You need 
to know the respawn times of the items:
<ul>
  <li>Red Armor: 25 seconds</li>
  <li>Mega Health: 35 seconds</li>
  <li>Quad: 2 minutes</li>
  <li>Weapon in TDM (Team Death Match): 12 seconds</li>
  <li>Weapon: 5 seconds</li>
</ul>
You can enter your answer in the text fields labeled &quot;X will respawn at&quot;.
Depending on your answer you get some points or not.
</p>

<h2>Options</h2>

<p>
You can configure QL Time Calc Trainer a bit:
<ul>
  <li><i>Timer counts up/down:</i>
  <ul>
    <li>Timer counts up: Like cg_leveltimerdirection 0 (this is the default
    setting in Quake Live Time Calc Trainer because most players who care
    about timing use this setting in Quake Live, it's a lot easier to
    calculate),</li> 
    <li>Timer counts down: Like cg_leveltimerdirection 1, which is the
    default setting in Quake Live</li>
  </ul>
  Timer direction changes beginning with next question.</li>
  <li><i>Round to five seconds:</i> Only starting times that are divisible by 5
  are used, like 1:25, 7:30, 8:45 but not 4:37.</li>
  <li><i>Ignore Minute:</i> The minute of the answer will be filled automatically,
  you only need to enter the seconds.</li>
  <li><i>Item frequencies:</i> Lets you configure which items will be used
  at all and which item will be asked for how often (relative to each other).
  Uncheck any items you don't want to be asked for. Draw the slider to the
  right to be asked more often for a specific item, draw it to the left to
  be asked less often. For the mathematically inclined: the value given is
  the probability with which the item is chosen. The sum of all probabilities
  needs to be 1 all the time of course but you don't need to worry about that,
  the probabilities are normalized by the application.
  </li>
</ul>
</p>

<h2>Score</h2>

<p>
For each answer you get a score, depending on how correct the answer was and how
long the calculation took you. You can score points even for wrong answers: if
the answer is just a bit off but you answered very quickly, you receive points.
This reflects the fact that most often it is not necessary to time the items
100% perfect but it is fine if you time it approximately. Being too early at the
place where the item will respawn is better than being too late. In the first
case, you may have to wait a few seconds, in the second case the item might
already be taken.
</p>
<p>
The maximum score is 10 - that would be for a correct answer given in zero
seconds. Each second you need to calculate the answer costs you 1 point.
</p>
<p>
Being slightly off decreases your score in the following way:
<ul>
  <li>1 second too early decreases the score by 0.1</li>
  <li>2 seconds too early decreases the score by 0.2</li>
  <li>3 seconds too early decreases the score by 0.4</li>
  <li>4 seconds too early decreases the score by 0.7</li>
  <li>5 seconds too early decreases the score by 1</li>
  <li>6 seconds too early decreases the score by 2</li>
  <li>7 seconds too early decreases the score by 4</li>
  <li>8 seconds too early decreases the score by 8</li>
  <li>9 or more seconds too early: No Points will be given</li>
  <li>1 second too late decreases the score by 0.2</li>
  <li>2 seconds too late decreases the score by 0.4</li>
  <li>3 seconds too late decreases the score by 0.8</li>
  <li>4 seconds too late decreases the score by 1.4</li>
  <li>5 seconds too late decreases the score by 2</li>
  <li>6 seconds too late decreases the score by 4</li>
  <li>7 seconds too late decreases the score by 8</li>
  <li>8 or more seconds too late: No Points will be given</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
This scoring schema never gives a negative score. Should the score calculated by
the rules above be negative, you get 0 points.
</p>

<h2>Statistics</h2>

<p>
After each answer, the application tells you if you were right or wrong. If you
were wrong, the correct answer is shown. The application also displays four
statistical values:
<ul>
  <li><i>Time needed:</i> Shows the time it took you to enter the last solution.</li>
  <li><i>Score last:</i> Shows the score for your last answer.</li>
  <li><i>Total Score:</i> Shows the total score for all answers so far.</li>
  <li><i>Avg. Score:</i> Shows the average score for all answers so far, that is, your total score divided by the number of answers.</li>
</ul>
</p>

<h2>Miscellaneous</h2>

<p>
QL Time Calc Trainer was written by Bastian Krol (bastian.krol@web.de). 
Published under the GNU General Public License v3. 
Have a look at the <a target="_blank" href="http://code.google.com/p/qltimecalc/">project website</a>
for the latest version (or use &quot;Project Website&quot; from the Help menu).
</p>
<p>
Quake Live, Quake and Quake 3 Arena are registered trademarks of Id Software LLC.
</p>

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